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THE INSURRECTION 

OF 
JUNE AND JULY 1894 

GROWING OUT OF THE 

PULLMAN STRIKK 

AT 
CHICAGO, ILL. 

An Address Delivered before the National Statis- 
tical Association at the Columbian University, Wash' 
ingtcn, D. C, October 9th, 1894. 

BY 

Joseph Nimmo, Jr., LL.D. 



AGE PRINTING COMPANY, 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

1894. 




I 



THE INSURRECTION 

OF 
JUNE AND JULY 1894 

GROWING OUT OF THE 

PULLIVIAN STRIKE 

AT 
CHICAGO, ILL. 

An Address Delivered before the National Statis- 
tical Association at the Columbian University, Wash- 
ington, D. C, October 9th. 1894. 

:' - -' y BY 

Joseph Nimmo, Jr., LL.D. 



AGE PRINTING COMPANY, -^^CFm^.;. 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

1894. \c J 



V^'^ >h\^ 



^.^1i 






REvSOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE NATIONAL 
STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION. 



Washington, D. C, October 9th, 1894. 

Whereas : This Association has this evening listened 
to an address of great value by Joseph Nimmo, Jr., 
LL.D. — Vice-President, Section of Railway Transporta- 
tion, upon the subject of " The Insurrection of 1894, 
growing out of the Pullman Strike," and in view of the 
fact that the President of the United States, will soon 
be called upon to consider the merits of this subject, 
and in view also of the fact that the President is an hon- 
orary member of this Association. 

Therefore be it Resolved : That a copy of Doctor 
Nimmo's address be transmitted to the President of the 
United States for his consideration. j 



The Insurrection of June and July 1894, 
Growing out of the Pullman Strike. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : The lapse of time 
renders it possible to formulate something like a logical 
statement in regard to the disturbance which began 
within the corporate limits of the City of Chicago on the 
11th of May last, and subsequently extended west- 
ward to the Pacific Coast. This disturbance had its ori- 
gin in a labor strike at the car shops in the town of Pull- 
man, 111., now embraced within the corporate limits of the 
City of Chicago. If the issue involved in that strike had 
not been carried beyond the town of Pullman, the trouble 
would have excited no more attention than labor troubles 
of as great or even greater magnitude in other parts of the 
country. But the Pullman strike culminated in an insur- 
rection which involved the commercial, industrial and 
transportation interests of two-thirds of the United 
States exclusive of Alaska, and required the intervention 
of the armed forces of the I^ational Gfovernment for its 
suppression. 

The town of Pullman was founded in the year 1880 on 
what was then an open prairie at a point 14 miles from 
the City of Chicago. The Pullman Palace Car Company 
purchased at that point about 500 acres of land, and there 
erected extensive works for the building of sleeping, 
parlor and dining-room cars, for its own use, also for the 
building of cars of every description for railroad compa- 
nies. The Pullman Company also built at the town of 
Pullman all the houses needed as homes for its employes 
and others called there by the needs of such a community. 
To this day the Company retains the ownership of this en- 
tire property. The streets, parks, sewers, gas works, wa- 
ter works, school houses, library and other public build- 
ings at Pullman were also constructed by the Company. 



Thus ample provision was made for the health, comfort 
and wholesome social environment of some twelve thou- 
sand people. Although out of the ordinary line of urban 
development, there was and is nothing phenominal in 
this important enterprise. I have in person made a 
somewhat careful study of the conditions of life at Pull- 
man but fail to discover there any curtailment of per- 
sonal liberty which does not prevail at Chautauqua, New 
York, for educational purposes, at Ocean Grove, New 
Jersey, for religious purposes, and at many other places 
in the United States for the purpose of carrying on min- 
ing, manufacturing and other industrial works. There 
appears to be nothing in the public policy of this coun- 
try which forbids such development. Three days before 
I visited Pullman I was at Chautauqua, New York. The 
chief administrative offi .' at that place then told me 
that the absolute control of its governing conditions in 
the hands of its management, constitutes an essential 
feature of the success of the Chautauqua plan. 

The laborers at Pullman are under no obligation what- 
ever to live in that town, being allowed and even en- 
couraged to purchase homes for themselves in adjacent 
villages within easy walking distance of the Pullman 
shops. 

The Pullman Company declare that the wages paid, to 
their employes at the time of the outbreak in May last 
involved an actual loss to the Company on the work done. 
This appears to be probable, from the fact that during 
the last eighteen months, hundreds of industrial estab- 
lishments throughout the country have been running at 
reduced rates of wages, without profit, or at an actual 
loss, in order to hold their trade. Besides the building 
of cars and especially passenger cars for the use of the 
Pullman Company was greatly depressed owing to the 
fact that during the year 1892 and the early part of 1893, 
an unusually large number of cars was built in order to 



3 

accommodate the increased travel caused by the Colum- 
bian World's Fair at Chicago during the latter year. 
The result was that the Pullman Company found itself 
in the autumn of the year 1893 with 400 extra cars on 
hand. This surplusage of equipment operated as a bar- 
rier to further construction for at least two or three 
years. Work at the car shops at Pullman was therefore 
reduced to repairing Pullman cars and the building of 
cars for railroad companies during a period of great 
business depression, when throughout the country thou- 
sands of cars were lying idle.\ At this time also the var- 
ious car building establishments of the country were 
sharply competing with each other, with no possibility 
of accomplishing more than keeping their business alive. 
Under these circumstances the Pullman Company made 
a reduction of wages in itsf j^r shops averaging 19 per 
cent, and by making bids under the reduced scale of 
wages, but excluding all estimate of profit, the shops 
were kept open during the winter. But the work which 
could be secured was altogether inadequate to give full 
employment to the entire force on the roll, although such 
force amounted to only about two-thirds the number em- 
ployed in the early part of the year 1893. 'No complaint 
as to the reduction of wages was made however until the 
7tli of May, 1894, when a large committee of the work- 
men called upon the chief ofiicers of the Company and 
discussed the matter with them. At this and another 
meeting held on May 9th, the. business situation was 
fully explained to the committee, and the losses being in- 
curred in car building contracts then in hand were stated 
to them in detail. But two days later the principal part 
of them had recourse to a strike, which lasted 12 weeks, 
work being resumed on the 2d of August. 

The Pullman Company declined all propositions to 
submit to arbitration the matter at issue with its em- 
ployes, on the ground that it had ascertained that even 



at the reduced wages the car building contracts which 
could be secured involved serious losses. The manage- 
ment, therefore, was unwilling to submit to the dictation 
q1* any person not responsible to its shareholders, the 
question as to whether it should or should not increase 
its losses by^an increase in wages. The President of the 
Company, however, at the meeting of May 9th, offered to 
submit an inspection of the Company's books relating to 
the manufacturing business to a committee of the work- 
men, in order to satisfy them as to the losses incurred in 
the work being done by them. Strange as it may appear 
that offer was repelled. This was a fatal error. Those 
employees were just as capable of computing the cost of 
building a car at the Pullman works as were the mana- 
gers of the business. Besides such inquiry naturally 
preceded any form of arbitration, or other peaceful mode 
of adjusting the difficulty. The refusal to make such ex- 
amination appears to have been dictated, by a hot headed 
purpose to have recourse to violent procedure. 

When the strike began the Pullman Company was pay- 
ing about 7,000 dollars a day in wages, the average 
wage for mechanics being $2.03 a day. At that time also 
the employes of the Company had $422,834 on deposit in 
the Pullman Savings Bank which sum has been reduced 
by about ^^100,000. At no other time since the founding 
of the town could such a movement have been attended 
with greater suffering to the workmen, or with less in- 
jury to the Pullman Company. Indeed it appears prob- 
able that the strike relieved the Company from the re- 
sponsibility of caring for their employes by doing busi- 
ness at a loss. 

The Pullman strike involved no damage whatever to 
property at that point. Not even a pane of glass was 
broken in the town by a striker. This was undoubtedly 
due to the fact that the town was well guarded. 



I have not attempted to determine the merits of the 
various labor questions raised at Pullman. That presum- 
ably falls within the range of the inquiries of the Strike 
Commission ordered by the President under the authority 
of law. The attention which I have given to affairs at Pull- 
man is entirely incidental to the fact that the strike at 
that point was made the occasion for the most destruct- 
ive and wide-spread industrial insurrection which ever 
occurred on this continent. It is to this insurrection that 
my attention has been particularly directed. 

THE AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION AND THE 
PART WHICH IT PLAYED IN THE INSUR- 
RECTION OF 1894. 

Both the Pullman strike and the so-called railroad 
sympathetic strike which grew out of it were incited and 
throughout sustained and managed by the American 
Railway Union, an association which for nearly two 
years had been trying to make its authority dominant 
over all other railroad labor organizations in the country. 
The principal part of the workmen at Pullman having 
enrolled themselves as members of the American Rail- 
way Union, made the fatal mistake of surrendering their 
own judgment to the will of the oflBcers of that body. 
This was the cause of all the trouble which ensued. The 
officers of the American Railway Union put in an appear- 
ance when the first demand for advanced wages was 
made upon the Pullman Company, the strike at Pull- 
man was ordered by a local division of the association 
and its officers appeared as directors of the insurrection 
which occurred at various points, from the State of In- 
diana to the Pacific Coast. 

According to information which I believe to be reli- 
able the American Railway Union has no charter, and 
no sort of legal existence, being simply an irresponsible 
association organized by its present leaders. Although 



it has enrolled in its ranks railroad employes of every 
grade, as well as workmen engaged in the construction 
of railroad equipment, it has no actual representative 
character. Accessions to its ranks during the last eigh- 
teen months have been the result of a crusade which has 
illustrated the possibilities of audacity and persuasive 
eloquence. 

In inciting and conducting the recent insurrection, the 
American Railway Union has been instrumental in caus- 
ing untold misery to laboring men and their families- 
It has also caused the destruction of millions of dollars 
worth of railroad and other property, and it has arrested 
hundreds of millions of dollars worth of commerce. But 
I am unable to learn that it could respond in damages 
for the destruction of a single car. Thousands of Pull- 
man and railroad employes who struck upon the promise 
that they would be taken care of, are to-day bemoaning 
the result of their folly. The phenomenal success of the 
American Railway Union, both in securing recruits and 
in disturbing the peace of the country must be classed 
among the truths stranger than fiction. 

THE NATIONAL ISSUE INVOLVED. 

On the 29th day of June, three days after the insur- 
rection was inaugurated, United States District Court 
Judge Ross in a charge to the grand jury at Los Angeles, 
California, particularly directed their attention to two 
federal statutes of transcendent importance touching the 
commercial life of this nation. The first of these two 
statutes is the Act of June 15, 1866, which provides for 
the continuity of interstate traffic over all connecting 
railroads engaged in the transportation of the mails, 
freight, passengers, troops and government supplies. 
Judge Ross also quoted to the grand jury an Act, sup- 
plemental to the Act of June 19, 1866, and of equal im- 
portance, viz : the " Act to Regulate Commerce," ap- 
proved February 4, 1887, commonly known as the '' In- 



terstate Commerce Act." This latter Act forbids any 
interference whatever with interstate commerce, or any 
combination, or agreement for such purposes. It also 
provides severe penalties for the violations of its provis- 
ions. These two Acts are based upon the constitutional 
provision that Congress shall have power to regulate 
commerce among the States. Judge Ross also directed 
the attention of the grand jury to the laws of the United 
States in regard to the transportation of the mails, which 
laws were being violated. 

This judicial utterance of a judge of a United States 
Court proclaimed an insurrection in progress, and the 
fact at once became known to the whole country through 
the public press. 

On the 2d of July, U. S. Judges Woods and Grrosscup 
served an injunction at Chicago upon the officers of the 
American Railway Union forbidding any interference 
with the mails or with the transportation of passengers, 
freights or express matter. These judicial officers of the 
government took the same view of the disturbance which 
had been expressed by Judge Ross. 

THE OUTBREAK AND PROORESS OF THE INSUR- 
RECTION. 

Early in the present year the American Railway Union 
had achieved a triumph over one of the transcontinental 
railroads, and seemed to be ambitious to down the great 
Pullman Company operating its cars on 125,000 out of the 
170,000 miles of railroad in the United States. Such a 
triumph would have given it an authority over the com- 
mercial and transportation interests of this country far 
greater than that which has ever been asserted or exer- 
cised by the government of the United States. 

Six weeks elapsed after the strike ordered at Pullman 
begun, and there appeared to be no sign of success at that 
point. Undoubtedly the workmen at Pullman would 



soon have yielded. At thiKS critical moment the officers 
of the American Railway Union had recourse to the des- 
perate expedient of ordering all railroad employes, mem- 
bers of that oganization to boycott all Pullman cars, i. e. 
refuse to engage in hauling them on any railroad in the 
United States. This constituted what is commonly known 
as a sympathetic strike. Failing in this they were to 
^' tie up" the railroads of the country, ^. e., stop both 
their freight and passenger traffic, or in other words "tie 
up " the interna] commerce of this country. 

Behind an apparent zeal, on the part of the officers 
of the American Railway Union for the interests of the 
workmen at Pullman, the whole proceedings revealed 
their ambitious design of securing control of the Ameri- 
can Railway system. 

On the 22nd of June, just six weeks after the strike 
began at Pullman, a notice appeared in the public press 
of Chicago that a boycott on the use of Pullman cars had 
been ordered by the American Railway Union, and that 
such boycott would take eifect at 12 o'clock noon, on June 
26th. 

The General Managers Association of Chicago, 111., 
representing the twenty-four leading railroads cen 
tering in that city met on the 25th inst., and resolved 
that whereas the proposed boycott related to a matter 
which did not in the least concern the said companies or 
their employes, and whereas it was proposed by the 
American Railway Union to discommode the public, to 
prevent the companies from performing their legal obli- 
gations as common carriers, and from observing their 
contracts w^ith the Pullman Company, therefore they 
would resist such proceedings by all means within their 
power. The fact that the railroads using Pullman cars 
could not engage in such a boycott without violating 
their obligations as common carriers and subjecting 
themselves to enormous penalties, apparently presented 



no obstacle whatever to the leaders of the American Rail- 
way Union. Besides, the monstrous expedient of order- 
ing all railroad employes to participate in the struggle at 
the town of Pullman constituted a deliberate attempt to 
force, not only the railroad companies, but also the gen- 
eral public into active co-operation with the demands of 
the American Railway Union. The whole movement 
was throughout an unmitigated expression of lawlessness 
and violence involving riot and insurrection. From the 
very beginning of the so-called sympathetic strike or 
boycott, railroads which had never used a Pullman car 
were treated as those which did. 

The railroad strike began at the appointed hour, on 
June 26th, not only at Chicago, but at various points 
from Hammond, Indiana, to the Pacific Coast. It at first 
assumed the form of local riots, but within twenty-four 
hours it had culminated in an insurrection involving the 
total or partial paralysis of the postal service and as be- 
fore stated, the commerce of two-thirds of the territory 
of the United States exclusive of Alaska. The police 
force of Chicago and the forces at the command of the 
United States Courts, aided by the State troops were un- 
able to suppress rioting at that point, or to enable the 
railroad companies to resume their traffic. About July 
1st, the army of the United States, under orders from 
Washington, began to make itself felt at Chicago and at 
other points as far west as California, Oregon and Wash- 
ington. The militaiy force was daily strengthened by 
reinforcements from distant points, and on the 8th of 
July the President issued a proclamation ordering all 
insurgents to disperse. In the course of a few days *he 
frightful insurrection of 1894 was suppressed, transpor- 
tation on all railroads leading into Chicago being resumed 
on or about July 19th. But for several weeks afterwards 
the army was obliged to guard trains and important 
points along the lines of the transcontinental railroads. 



10 

The total forces engaged in suppressing the insurrec- 
tion at Chicago including city police, State militia, United 
States Marshal and his deputies, forces of the Sheriff of 
Cook County and of the United States Army numbered 
13,767 officers and men. Of this number only 1,936 con- 
sisted of officers and soldiers of the United States Army, 
but under the command of Greneral Miles, this force 
proved, what has been proved a thousand times before, 
that a military force is most effective in subduing an in- 
surrection, when led by officers whose profession in life 
has taught them the strength of military organization, 
and the weakness of a mob and how to make the most 
of both, so as to restore order with the least possible 
bloodshed. 

Equally meritorious service was performed by the 
troops under Brig. Gren. Wesley Merritt, of the Depart- 
ment of Dakota, along the lines of the Gfreat Northern 
and the Northern Pacific Railroads ; by troops under 
Brigadier General Thos. H. Ruger, on the lines of all the 
railroads in California and Nevada, and by the troops 
under other departmental commanders between the Miss- 
issippi River and the Pacific Coast. 

DAMAGE- DONE BY THE INSURRECTION. 

It has been computed that the insurrection of June 
and July involved a loss of $81,000,000 of which $47,000- 
000 represented wages lost to workingmen, $26,000,000 
loss to the business community and $8,000,000 loss to the 
railroads. I have not cared to test the accuracy of these 
figures, my particular object being to invite your atten- 
tion to a far more appalling result of the revolt, viz : 

The Injury loliicli the Insurrection Inflicted upon the Com- 
merce of the Country. 

The magnitude of the commercial interests arrested 
by the insurrection of 1894 was even greater than the 



11 

magnitude of the commercial interests arrested by the 
secession of the Southern States in the year 1861. This 
fact has not been appreciated on account of the sudden- 
ness of the recent revolt, the difficulty of arriving at a 
correct opinion as to its true character and its quick 
termination upon the display of the military power of 
the national government. 

The annual value of the commerce of Chicago cannot 
be accurately ascertained, but it may be approximately 
estimated from the following data,'^ which in each in- 
stance is the latest available. 

1. Sales of stock of the Union Stock 

Yards during 1892 $253,836,502 

2. Value of flour and grain sold through 

the Chicago Board of Trade during 

1893— approximately 111,400,000 

3. Value of the manufacturers of Chicago 

accord to the Census of 1890 664,567,923 

This data alone indicates a commerce at Chicago 
amounting to over one thousand million dollars a year. 
But it does not include coal, salt, seeds, vegetables, wool, 
hay, lumber, lath, shingles, butter, cheese, eggs and other 
animal, vegetable and mineral products, nor the enor- 
mous amounts involved in the purchase and sale of gen- 
eral merchandise at Chicago, including dry goods, grocer- 
ies, crockery, hardware, &c., &c. From my general know- 
ledge of commercial movements, I hesitate not to say 
that the commerce of the City of Chicago amounts to 
fully two thousand million dollars a year. 

The suspension of the commerce of Chicago continued 
23 days, viz., from June 26th to July 18th inclusive. The 

*I desire to express my obligations for valuable data upon which the fol- 
lowing statement is made, to James H. Ashby, General Superintendent of 
the Union Stock Yards and Transit Company of Chicago, to Geo. F. Williams. 
Secretary of the same Company, to Geo. F. Stone, Secretary of the Chicago 
Board of Trade, and to Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Superintendent of the Census, 



12 

commerce actually arrested by the insurrection during 
that brief period amounted to nearly $100,000,000, for 
the business of Chicago was for the time being prostrate. 
The falling off in trade at the Union Stock Yards alone, 
amounted to $31,724,000. Besides hundreds of thous- 
sands of dollars worth of perishable freight was abso- 
lutely destroyed. 

It is impossible to compute the annual value of the 
commercial and industrial interests affected by the late 
sympathetic strike or insurrection, throughout that vast 
region situated between the meridian of Indianapolis, 
Indiana and the Pacific Coast, but I believe it amounts to 
between four and fivetJiousand million dollars a year. This 
is about equal to the total value of all the railroads and 
their equipment, west of the meridian of Chicago. 

Effect of the Insurrection upo7i the Customs Service at 

Chicago. 

In the absence of the Collector at the time of my call 
at the Custom House, the Deputy Collector, Mr. Hitt, in- 
formed me that during the insurrection period of about 
three weeks the Customs receipts and the entry of for- 
eign goods in bond from Atlantic seaports almost en- 
tirely ceased. 

Effect of the Insurrectio7i upon the Postal Service of Chi- 
cago. 

Postmaster Hesing informed me that the postal ser- 
vice of the city was seriously affected at the very begin- 
ing of the strike. It became utterly demoralized on the 
2nd of July. On that day the post office stopped using 
the steam railroads for city delivery. The city occupies 
187 square miles of territory, and a considerable part of 
its mail service is conducted over steam railroads. The 
transcontinental mail ceased to come on July 2nd. On 
the 2nd or 3rd the Grrand Trunk line also ceased to bring 
mails. The western and northwestern service was al- 



13 

most entirely cut off during the insurrection period. The 
postal service over the eastern j-oads was not so seriously 
affected, but it fell off" 20 per cent during a period of 15 
days. 

ACTION TAKEN BY THE GOVERNOR OF ILLI- 
NOIS AND THE MAYOR OF CHICAGO. 

There is a feature of this insurrection which is discred- 
itable to the Nation, and to the age in which we live. 
Both the Mayor of the City of Chicago, and the Governor 
of the State of Illinois manifested outspoken sympathy 
with the strikers, and there is reason to believe that such 
sympathy made the rebellion against the municipal and 
federal laws possible. The Grovernor of Illinois so far 
forgot himself as to write letters to the President of the 
United States under date of July 5th and July 6th, pro- 
testing against the use of federal troops in that State al- 
though the duty of the President under the provisions of 
the Acts of June 15, 1866 and of March 4, 1887 is as clear 
as his duty under the Constitution to " take care that 
the laws be faithfully executed," a duty which is unre- 
mitted in peace and in war under the laws relating to the 
postal service, the custom service, the protection of com- 
merce, and the enforcement of the decrees of the federal 
courts. Besides under the constitution the President is 
commander-in-chief not only of the national, but also of 
the State military forces when called into the actual ser- 
vice of the United States. 

I am credibly informed that during the insurrection 
the Mayor of Chicago, stooped so low as to ask the per- 
mission of President Debs to have a car-load of dead ani- 
mals, carrion — removed from the city. Undoubtedly the 
action of the Grovernor of Illinois and of the Mayor of 
Chicago tended to encourage the rioters, and to intensify 
the insurrection. 

In this dismaUfailure of the authorities of the State of 
Illinois to prevent or suppress insurrection, it is pleasant 



14 



to reflect that the Act of March 4, 1887, commonly known 
as the Interstate Commerce Act, was formulated and en- 
acted into law mainly through the persistent and power- 
ful effort of a distinguished son of Illinois, Senator S. M. 
Cullom, and that this Act constitutes the clearest inhibi- 
tion of federal law against those proceedings which 
culminated in the insurrection of 1894. 

With pleasure also I recall the fact that on July 3rd 
Senator Palmer, of the State of Illinois denounced the 
violation of Federal laws involved in the boycott and 
counseled obedience to law. 

The President of the United States proceeded in this 
matter upon the most ample evidence that the exercise of 
the national authority was necessary. No other judg- 
ment in this country can come between the President 
and his discretion as to the proper exercise of that power 
in an emergency. The prompt and patriotic action of 
the President met the hearty approbation of Congress 
and of the entire country. 

THE INSURRECTION WEST OF CHICAGO. 

A full description of the insurrection west of Chicago 
would greatly exceed the proper limits of this paper. 
That, however, has been done by the commanding officers 
of the various military departments west of the Miss- 
issippi and Missouri Rivers. In this vast area the army 
had ample opportunity to prove that a military force, 
backed by the supreme power in the United States and 
exercising the resources of military strategy and tactics 
is so much the superior of lawless mobs as to be able to 
suppress them by the mere exhibition of power. 

This was done so admirably that serious damage to 
property was prevented and bloodshed almost entirely 
avoided. The value of the service thus rendered by our 
splendid little army cannot be even estimated. I would 
invite particular attention to the report of Brigadier Gren- 



15 

eral Wesley Merritt as to operations from Minnesota to 
the western border of Montana, a distance of about 1200 
miles. It tells of forced marches and the guarding of 
bridges, trestles, tunnels and other important points. 
Speaking of the Northern Pacific Railroad, General Mer- 
ritt declares that, but for the service rendered by his 
command, " the effacement of the road for a considerable 
length of time would have been wrought by the lawless 
element." 

During the prevalence of the insurrection the three 
States of the Pacilic Coast were entirely cut off from the 
east by rail. The damage thus done to the commerce of 
the country was enormous. I cannot describe that com- 
merce at the present time, but there is one branch of it 
to which for the purpose of illustration I beg leave to in- 
vite your attention, viz : — 

j The Commerce of California with the States East of the 
Rocky Mountains. 

California has been the banner State of progress dur- 
ing the last ten years mainly as the result of the rapid 
increase of its transcontinental commerce. During this 
period the increased value of farming lands, including 
fences and buildings, was for the entire United States 30 
per cent, but for California it was 166 per cent. The in- 
creased value of farm products was for the entire United 
States 11 per cent but for California 46 per cent. The 
annual value of the agricultural production of California 
now very largely exceeds in its mineral production even 
during the period of largest placer gold mining. This 
agricultural prosperity has been mainly due to the rapid 
development of transcontinental railroad traffic, the most 
important eastern shipment being fruit and wine. 

The growth of this traffic is illustrated with respect to 
the fruit trade as follows : 



16 



SHIPMENT OF FRUIT EAST BY RAIL FROM 
CALIFORNIA TERMINALS, IN POUNDS. 



Year. 



1873. 

1 1883. 
11893. 



Lbs. Greeu 
Fruit. 



2,896,530 

19,222,580 

149,040,480 



Lbs. Dried 
Fruit. 



3,097,950 
76,402,740 



Lbs. Raisins. 



295,050 
67,268.720 



The overland nail rates on fruit from California points 
to Chicago, have been reduced as follows — on green 
fruits, oranges and lemons from $2.50 per 100 lbs. in 
1873 to $1.25 in 1894, on dried fruit, from $2.25 in 1873 
to $1.00 in 1894, and on wine from $2.00 in 1873 to $1.00 
in 1894, thus a great commerce has been buiit up. 

The absolute suspension of California transcontinental 
traffic from June 26th to July 21, a period of 26 days 
caused enormous losses to shippers of fruit. 

This paralysis of a great and growing commerce full 
of promise to the people of California and of the whole 
country was inaugurated at the behest of two or three 
men who directed the action of the American Railway 
Union, the so-called sympathetic strike in California, 
having been conducted under their orders until brought 
to an abrupt termination by the army of the United 
States, assisted, in the immediate vicinity of San Fran- 
cisco by the forces of the Navy at that point. 

THE OBSTRUCTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAILS. 

In the conduct of this, as of previous railroad strikes, 
there has been a real or pretended deference paid by 
strikers to the United States mails, such deference ap- 
parently proceeding upon the idea that if the mails are 
undisturbed the government of the United States has 
nothing to do with the matter. This is a very absurd 
error. The mails carried on railroads are no more sacred 



17 

thau is freight or express matter. In the transportation 
of mails the government of the United States performs 
merely a ministerial function. The actual work of trans- 
porting the mails is done by railroad companies in cars 
owned and hauled by them, such transportation being 
usually in the nature of an adjunct to the passenger traf- 
fic. Presumably, 85 per cent of the letter mails relate 
to commercial transactions. Printed mail matter also 
has an important commercial character. In point of pro- 
prietorship the mails are John Smith's mails or Tom 
Brown's mails as much as they are United States mails. 
Under the provisions of the Act of June 15, 1866, and 
March 4, 1887, freights carried on railroads are as much 
the objects of national protection as are the mails. In- 
terstate traiBc is United States traflBc, as truly as the 
mails are United States mails, and the constitutional ob- 
ligations of the national government touching the pro- 
tection of passengers, freights and express matter in 
transit are just as binding as all those which relate to 
the transmission of the mails. The free and uninter- 
rupted flow of commerce is vital to the life of the nation, 
and an assault upon it is insurrection. 

DOCUMENTARY PROOF THAT THE RECENT 

TROUBLES CONSTITUTED AN INSURRECTION. 

In his Proclamation of July 8th, 1894 the President of 
the United States said " Whereas it has become imprac- 
ticable to enforce by the ordinary course of judicial pro- 
ceedings the laws of the United States in the State of 
Illinois &c, &c. . . .And whereas for the purpose of en- 
forcing the faithful execution of the laws of the United 
States. . . .the President has employed a part of the mil- 
itary forces of the United States &c, &c." This consti- 
tuted the official recognition by the Chief Executive of 
an insurrection in progress. 

The judicial recognition of an existent insurrection is 



18 

also clearly manifest in the charge of U. S. Judge Gross- 
cup to the grand jury at Chicago on July 10th, 1894. 
Said the learned Judge, " Gentlemen of the grand jury 
. . . .You have come into an atmosphere, and amid occur- 
rences, that may well cause reasonable men to question 
whether the laws of the United States are yet supreme. 
. . . .Government by law is imperiled and that issue is 
paramount." 

Judge Grosscup then proceeded to explain that "in- 
surrection is rising against civil or political authority 
and that it consists in concerted action, (1) to set at de- 
fiance the authority of the government, and (2) to oppose 
the enforcement of its laws. In order to make the exist- 
ence of an insurrection perfectly clear to the grand jury 
the learned Judge said, " When men gather to resist the 
civil or political power of the United States or to oppose 
the- execution of its laws, and are in such force that the 
civil authorities are inadequate to put them down, 
and a considerable military force is needed to accomplish 
that result they become insurgents." Precisely that 
state of affiairs then existed at Chicago and at various 
points between the State of Indiana and the Pacific Coast, 
and the fact was patent to the observation of everj^ in- 
telligent citizen. 

The military orders issued from Washington, in Cali- 
fornia, at Chicago and at other points, also indicate the 
existence of a wide-spread rebellion. The Major Gen- 
eral commanding the army and Brigadier Generals com- 
manding the different Military Departments, in their 
several annual reports clearly describe the outbreak as 
an insurrection of formidable character. Says Major 
General Schofield, "So wide-spread and formidable an 
insurrection called for the vigorous action dictated by 
the President. It became necessary to confer upon the 
commanding Generals of six Departments, viz : the Mis- 
souri, Dakota, Platte, Colorado, California, and the Co- 



19 

lumbia full authority to employ the entire military force 
under their command, in executing the orders of the 
President." General Schofield further declares that 
'* the military resources of the government were taxed 
nearly to the extreme limit." 

General Miles, whose headquarters are at Chicago, 
says the army "saved this country from a serious rebel- 
lion, when one had been publicly declared to exist by 
one most responsible for its existence." This of course 
refers to the public utterance of President Debs of the 
American Railway Union, that in order to effect his pur- 
pose he would arrest the internal commerce of the entire 
country. 

In his annual report Brigadier General Ruger com- 
manding the Department of California, says "The acts of 
those engaged were distinctly insurrectionary." 

Brigadier General McCook describes the military opera- 
tions along transcontinental lines in the Department of 
the Colorado under the title : " Insurrection of Railroad 
Employes." 

Says Brigadier General Merritt commanding the De- 
partment of Dakota, " Every wheel on the Northern Pa- 
cific Railroad was stopped." General Merritt also 
includes in his report a copy of a notice of the American 
Railway Union to its members, employes of the Great 
Northern Railway line which embraces the following 
order : 

'• Should you be called upon to handle cars containing 
soldiers or implements of war, refuse to do so, advise us 
and we will tie up the road." 

Such notices extensively circulated, constitute the in- 
dubitable evidence of an open revolt against the author- 
ity of the national government, and leaves no doubt that 
if the military power of the United States had not inter- 
vened the worst results of civil war would speedily have 
been realized. 



20 

A VITALLY IMPORTANT CONDITION GOVERNING 

THE INTERNAL COMMERCE OF THE UNITED 

STATES SET AT DEFIANCE. 

By the practical unity of the railroads of the United 
States under co-operative arrangements, the various lines 
have become unto the shipper and the traveller as one great 
American railroad, thus securing to the people of this 
country the most extensive, the cheapest, the speediest, 
the most efficient, and in a word the grandest system of 
transportation ever seen on this planet. To-day we have 
connected railroad tracks, through traffic, and freight 
cars employed in all parts of this vast country as though 
they were common property. 

But many of us still in the prime of life can remember 
when even a union railroad depot was a phenomenon. 
For years railroad managers regarded joint traffic as an 
entangling alliance. The courts also treated such traffic 
as in the nature of a partnership between corporations 
and as such ultra vires as between the parties to it. In 
the year 1855 a journey from New York City to a cer- 
tain town on the Mississippi River in Iowa involved 
seven transfers from one vehicle of transportation to 
another, and the payment of seven railroad, ferryboat 
and transfer coach fares. That journey can now be made 
on one through ticket and with but one change of cars. 
The State of New York then repelled the idea of allow- 
ing a railroad bridge to be constructed across the Hud- 
son River at Albany, and a railroad .bridge across the 
Mississippi River was held to be an obstruction to the 
commerce of the country, and as such, a public nuisance. 
Besides the great railroad corporations of the country 
strenuously opposed joint traffic as being against sound 
railroad policy. This opposition expressed itself in var- 
ious devices, such as break of guage, refusal to make 
through rates and refusal to allow \\iQ cars of one com- 



21 

paiiy to be operated on the lines of another company. 
But the economic, commercial and social demands for a 
United Railroad Service, year by year grew stronger. 
To this was added during the late war, a pressing mili- 
tary demand for railroad unity. At last, out of the in- 
teraction of forces, the American Railway System 
emerged with all its potentialities for good. It was the 
product of an evolution, beyond all human prescience or 
devisement. 

The Act of June 15, 1866 which legalized railroad 
unity in this country was simply a legislative recogni- 
tion of the results reached through this mighty evolution. 
That Act read as follows : 

An Act to facilitate commercial, postal and military 
communication among the states. 

Whereas, the constitution of the United States confers 
upon Congress, in express terms, the power to regulate 
commerce among the several states, to establish post- 
roads and to raise and support armies ; therefore, 

Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives of the United States in Congress assembled, That 
every railroad company in the United States whose road 
is operated by steam, its successors and assigns, be, and 
is hereby, authorized to carry upon and over its road, 
boats, bridges and ferries all passengers, troops, gov- 
ernment supplies, mails, freight and property on their 
way from any state to another state, and to receive com- 
pensation therefor, and to connect with roads of other 
states, so as to form continuous lines for the transpor- 
tation of the same to the place of its destination. 

Section 2. And he it further enacted, That Congress 
may at any time alter, amend or repeal this Act. 

This act of Congress fully and explicitly authorizes all 
the railroad combinations and co-operative arrangements 
which are necessary to the unity of our railroad system. 



22 

Therefore it may be properly regarded as The Charter of 
The Americmi Railroad System. But the American Rail- 
road System has even a higher charter than this statuory 
enactment, and that is the very charter of government 
itself — the will of the people, for the Act referred to for- 
mulates at once the public needs and the public sense of 
what is necessary and proper concerning railroad trans- 
portation, and there is to-day no purpose more firmly 
fixed in the minds of the American people than that the 
railroads of this country shall be operated as one great 
national system of transportation over which the inter- 
nal commerce of this country shall have free and unob- 
structed passage. The irresponsible American Railway 
Union, defiantly set itself up against this clearly ex- 
pressed verdict. 

The law of Feb. 4, 1887, known as the Interstate Com- 
merce Act is supplemental to the Act of June 15th, 1866, 
and provides the means for making it effective. The In- 
terstate Commerce Commission created by the Act of 
Feb. 4, 1887, has disclosed the grand fact, that the Ameri- 
can Railroad System now exhibits within itself the most 
splendid results of self-government. With its doors wide 
open to the reception of complaints from all parts of this 
vast country the commission stated in its last annual re- 
port that during the year then closed, only sixteen cases 
involving unjust discrimination had come to a hearing 
and determination, of which only about two-thirds were 
decided against railroad companies. It also reported 
that not a single case of exorbitant charges had been 
proved on the 170,000 miles of railroad in the United 
States. 

The Acts of June 15, 1866, and of Feb. 4, 1887, quoted 
by Judges Ross, Woods and Grrosscup in condemnation of 
the insurrection, are based upon the teachings of the 
commercial and industrial experiences of the people of 
this country regarding railroad transportation- In the 



23 

language of Lord Bacon, the dictates of such experiences 
constitute the leges legum of a nation, the only substantial 
foundation of statutory enactment. All reform in the 
railroad transportation affairs of this country must come 
through compliance with that law of laws, the evolved 
law of the American Railway System, which is as man- 
datory upon our national legislators as is the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. The offense committed by Mr. 
Debs and his associates, was that they, not only in a 
flagicious manner violated the laws of their country, but 
also the law of its laws touching the inviolability of 
commercial intercommunication. 

In this connection it is of interest to advert to the fact 
that the Act of June 15, 1866, enacted only fourteen 
months after the termination of the war of the rebellion 
provided for the facilitating of military communication 
among the States. And to-day the purpose that the union 
of States " must and shall be preserved " by the power 
of the national government is no more firmly fixed in the 
minds of the American people, than that the unity of the 
transportation interests of the country authorized by that 
Act must and shall be preserved by the same power. 
It was this firm resolve which caused the patriotic peo- 
ple of this country to rejoice when President Cleveland 
true to the great trust confided to him ordered the mili- 
tary forces of the nation to put down all opposition to 
the re-establishment of the commerce of this country 
even in the face of the protest of the Governor of the 
State of Illinois. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SYMPATHETIC 
RAILROAD STRIKE. 

The right of the employes of railroad companies to or- 
ganize for their mutual advancement as a class, and for 
their mutual protection against themselves and against 
external evils, is generally conceded. It is a right en- 



9A 

joyed by laborers of every class, and a legitimate mani- 
festation of .human liberty. 

Laborers may also individually, or collectively, leave 
their employment when they please, but in so doing they 
must not violate any contract as to the duration of their 
employment, nor can their leaving be in such manner as 
to excite riot or public disorder, or imperil human life or 
property. It is also a clearly established principle of 
human government that no man or association of men can 
be allowed to adopt any expedient or method which to 
him or them may appear to be most effectual for the pur- 
pose of securing personal rights irrespective of the rights 
of others. The enlightened judgment of mankind con- 
dems all such disorderly, and destructive methods of re- 
dress. Besides the idea of allowing any man or associa- 
tion of men to force others, under any form of duress, to 
become parties to their struggles is intolerable. Such 
procedure is not only vengeful, immoral, and unjust, but 
disorderly, and as such to be suppressed by the police 
power and if necessary by the military power of govern- 
ment. Conduct of this sort, if permitted would throw 
organized society into confusion, for human society exists 
throagh conformity to restraints, which the experiences 
of mankind have proved to be necessary for the mainten- 
ance of justice and order, and necessary also in order to 
secure to all the blessings of liberty regulated by law. 
Civilization has advanced along these lines, and refusal 
to abide by such restraints as are formulated and pre- 
scribed by governmental authority is revolutionary. 

These are, of course, elementary propositions in the 
science of human government, and it would not be in 
order to bring them to the notice of the well informed 
members of this association, but for the fact that a flag- 
rant and dangerous disregard of them seems to have in- 
volved the necessity of providing additional securities 
for the maintenance of public order. 



25 

In the case at issue the railroad boycott constituted an 
attempt to force innocent third parties to interfere in the 
settlement of a dispute which did not concern them, at 
the town of Pullman, under penalty of an overwhelming 
injury to such third parties. The third parties in this 
case were the railroad companies, and the general public 
engaged in commerce and travel. The injury to such 
third parties, was incomparably greater in magnitude 
than the injury to the parties directly concerned in 
the controversy at Pullman, for, as I have shown, such 
injury to third parties involved the suspension of the 
commerce of about two-thirds the area of the United 
States exclusive of Alaska, and caused an insurrection, 
requiring for its subjugation the services of more than 
half the available military forces of the government of 
the United States. 

The whole proceeding was as ridiculous as it was out- 
rageous. A general acceptance of the doctrine proclaimed 
by the American Railway Union would mean a plunge 
from the highest civilization into the most degraded bar- 
barism, for even semi-barbarians impose limitations upon 
the individual right of reprisal. In a word the expedient 
to which the leaders of the American Railway Union had 
recourse, set at defiance the fundamental principles of 
civilization and went in the face of all law, and all right, 
and all justice, and all decency. 

The merits of the political aspect of the case are also 
clearly apparent. The Constitution of the United States 
declares that " Congress shall have power to regulate 
commerce among the States." In pursuance of this pro- 
vision the laws of Congress already mentioned have 
been enacted for the purpose of sustaining and defending 
the commerce of the United States against violent assault. 
But the asserted power of the American Railway Union 
evidently implied a control of the commerce of the coun- 
try vastly more potential and coercive than all the laws 



which have ever been enacted under the commercial 
clause of the constitution. This is no exaggeration, for 
the stoppage of every wheel on the great trunk lines of 
the country would evidently be a much more strenuous 
exercise of power than that which the national govern- 
ment has ever seen fit to exercise under the constitutional 
authority of regulating commerce among the States, be- 
sides being in open revolt against the national authority. 
In this connection it is pleasant to advert to the fact 
that the abler and more judicious leaders of labor organ- 
ization in the United States at the very beginning re- 
pudiated the sympathetic strike and the proceedings of 
the American Railway Union which led up to the recent 
insurrection. There is also reason to believe that the 
ofiicers of that organization now see the error of their 
ways. I think there is not one of them who now hesi- 
tates to express his regrets at the commission of acts 
which led to the insurrection, i 

THE NEED OF A LAEGEE AEMY FOE THE PEO- 
TECTION OF THE AMEEICAN EAILEOAD 

SYSTEM. 

In their recent annual reports Major Greneral Schofield, 
commanding the Army of the United States, and Major 
Greneral Howard, commanding the Department of the 
East have recommended an increase in the size of the 
Army. Both those officers have rendered distinguished 
military service to their country, and both will within a 
year, by the limitations of law, terminate their active 
duties as oflficers of the United States. This circum- 
stance, in connection with the proven character, and ex- 
alted patriotism of those veteran soldiers gives great 
weight to their parting words of advice. Both base 
their recommendations as to an increase of the Army 
mainly upon the fact that the population of the United 
States has doubled since the present size of the Army 



was fixed by law. General Schofield also calls attention 
to the fact that during a large part of the past year, the 
Army has been employed in the suppression of domestic 
violence. This occurred, first, in the preservation of 
order in the Indian Territory; second in maintaining the 
peace and protecting public property at Denver, Color- 
ado, in consequence of a conflict at that point between 
the State and city authorities ; third, in protecting trans- 
continental railroads against the depredations of the so- 
called " Industrial Army ;" fourth, in subduing an out- 
break at the Coeur d'Alene mines of Northern Idaho ; 
and fifth, in suppressing the great insurrection of 1894 
Wliich I have described. Greneral Schofield also declares 
that if this insurrection had extended, the resources of 
the government would have proved inadequate. 

But I beg leave to suggest that there is a more cogent 
reason even than those urged by Grenerals Schofield and 
Howard why the Army should be increased in size, viz. 
the fact already stated that through the processes of a 
mighty evolution the railroads of this country to-day 
form one highly organized and delicately articulatad 
national system of transportation, which is vulnerable 
at every bridge, and trestle, and tunnel and switch and 
rail, its entire apparatus of repair being at all times sub- 
ject to speedy demolition. The very equipment of the 
American Railroad System can readily be converted into 
instruments for its own destruction. Like the human 
system the hurt of one part of this wonderful system of 
transportation may cause a constitutional disturbance 
which will be felt throughout the whole. The intense 
mechanical character of this grand transportation system 
exposes the commerce and industry of the United States 
to assault along 170,000 miles of road. It is easy there- 
fore to understand how a few thousand railroad em- 
ployes, fully acquainted with the infirmities of the rail- 
road were able to suspend the commerce of two-thirds of 



28 

the territory of the United States within twenty-four 
hours after the first attack was made, and to create the 
necessity for calling more than half the Army of the 
United States into service, in order to subdue the insur- 
rection which ensued. The proven possibility of such a 
catastrophe constitutes the most important lesson of the 
insurrection. In view of these facts, therefore, I am led 
to regard the increase of the Army as a matter inci- 
dental to a great question of public policy regarding 
the preservation of the commercial life of this nation. 

Such moderate increase of the Army as is recom- 
mended by Crenerals Schofield and Howard would un- 
doubtedly be adequate for every emergency. This ap- 
pears to be evident from what was accomplished by our 
splendid little Army at Chicago, in California and along 
the lines of the various trans-continental railroads. 
Within twenty days and almost without bloodshed the 
insurrectionary forces were. baffled at every point. 

It is an idle, and I think I may say an insincere objection 
which attempts to see danger to liberty in such increase 
of the Army. The liberties of this country were won 
and have been defended by military power, and there 
need be no fear that the exercise of that power will not 
always be held in loyal subjection to the enlightened and 
patriotic judgment of the people of the United States- 
The complete subordination of the military to the civil 
power is a fundamental feature of our national policy, 
and this fact is carefully inculcated in the minds of our 
military men. Strict observance of this rule has charac- 
terized the action of the Army during the five months of 
almost continual military operations of the year ending 
August 31st, 1894. 

- Certain anarchistic defenders of the recent insurrec- 
tion have seen fit to characterize the action taken by the 
government as an assault upon the interests of labor. 
This is absurd. It is the plaint of baffled lawlessness. 



29 

In this whole matter the government has proved itself to 
be both the friend and the protector of labor. It pro- 
tected the laborers at Pullman, and on all the railroads 
interrupted by the insurrection against themselves. For 
what could have been more suicidal than the attempts of 
those employes to destroy the very industrial establish- 
ments which were affording to them and their families 
the means of living. Besides the interruption of railroad 
transportation, if long continued would have prevented 
an hundred times as many laborers engaged in agricul- 
ture, in manufactures, in mining and in other employ- 
ments from pursuing their gainful occupations, for trans- 
portation is to-day the life of all trade and of all indus- 
try. The Army can be used for no other purpose than 
to protect the people of this country in the pursuit of 
their businesses in life and to prevent their government 
from becoming the foot-ball of domestic violence. 

CONCLUSION. 

The progress of civilization has been coincident with the 
observance of the rights of property and the right of all 
men to enter into contractural relations which are not 
immoral or prejudicial to the public interests. There 
can be no civil order or beneficent administration of jus- 
tice where such rights are not respected. So the Con- 
stitution of the United States rests as firmly upon the 
maintenance of property rights, and the maintenance of 
the obligation of contracts as upon the maintenance of 
liberty. These eternal principles of right and justice 
have escorted our civilization from the beginning and they 
must be the guide of our footsteps even unto the end. 

The recent insurrection was a violent assault upon the 
rights of property, and upon the inviolability of con- 
tracts. It was also to a great extent incited by a sense- 
less and anarchistic outcry against aggregated capital. 
Sir, — aggregated capital has done a thousand times as 
much for the support, the comfort and the advancement 



30 

of the laboring classes of this country as it has done for 
their injury. That is clear to every reflecting mind, and 
I firmly believe that aggregated capital under our poli- 
tical institutions, is to-day as full of potentiality for the 
good of mankind as ever. Nor can I doubt that it will 
continue to accomplish its beneficent mission under just 
laws, at once protective of the rights of capital and of 
labor. 

I have no word other than of approbation towards the 
proper organization of labor for its own protection and 
advancement on the lines of right and justice. It is a 
sign of progress and of hope, that during the last two 
months the courts of the United States have uniformly 
expressed such sentiments in dealing with the wicke*d, 
and destructive insurrection which I have attempted to 
describe. That insurrection did much more to injury the 
cause of labor than to advance it, and much more to in- 
flict frightful suffering upon laboring men and their 
families than to injury railroad companies. If the labor- 
ing men of this country and especially the employes of 
railroad companies will consider the results achieved in 
their interest during the last thirty years they will find 
much more to rejoice over than to complai^ of. The 
average wages of railroad employes is now fully 60 per 
cent higher than they were thirty years ago, and at the 
same time the cost of living has decreased. On the 
other hand the average rates charged by the railroads 
for the transportation of freight were two and a half 
times as high twenty years ago as they are to-day. The 
railroad companies are unable to defend themselves 
against that stress of competition in transportation and 
in trade which has led to this result, and in consequence 
many companies have been driven into bankruptcy, while 
all have suffered. 

In conclusion, let me express the hope, unclouded by 
a serious doubt, that in dealing with the vitally import- 



ant subjects to which I have thus invited your attention, 
the Congress of the United States will be guided to a 
conclusion which will at once bespeak the best dictates 
of the patriotism and the enlightened judgment of the 
American people. 



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6 1951 



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